


The Daycare Dilemma

by spoilerings



Series: Waiting for Wonderful [1]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkwardness, Fluff, M/M, Sort of? - Freeform, The Office AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 06:16:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8193382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoilerings/pseuds/spoilerings
Summary: Scott guesses it’s not unlikely that something so shitty would happen when he has Cassie for the weekend, because that’s just how his life tends to play out. But it’s as if his dick of a boss doesn’t understand that some employees are really nice guys who made one dumb mistake in their lifetime, and whose ex-wives never let them live it down, and whose children they rarely get to see because of said ex-wives. It seems like a simple concept.
or
Scott is late picking up Cassie from daycare, but he meets Steve, the beautiful and charming daycare employee, so at least his whole life doesn't completely suck.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based on S6E15 of The Office when Jim walks in on the daycare guy taking a crap. I regret all of my life decisions.

Scott frantically digs his keys out of his pocket and unlocks his car as he’s running out of the office, cursing his boss for being such an asshole. He guesses it’s not unlikely that something so shitty would happen when he has Cassie for the weekend, because that’s just how his life tends to play out. But it’s as if his dick of a boss doesn’t understand that some employees are really nice guys who made one dumb mistake in their lifetime, and whose ex-wives never let them live it down, and whose children they rarely get to see because of said ex-wives. It seems like a simple concept.

 

And  _ shit, _ he’s  _ way _ past late to pick Cassie up from the prestigious daycare that Cassie barely got into in the first place, and he knows if this royal fuck up causes her to be kicked out, then he’s done. That’s it. Maggie is never going to let him see his daughter ever again. He’s almost in tears just thinking about the possibility when he realizes he missed the turn into the daycare parking lot.

 

“FUCK!” he shouts, slapping the top of his steering wheel out of anger before pulling into a gas station to turn around, now shedding a legitimate tear at the fact that his day is being so miraculously shitty, and that this is probably the last time he’s ever going to see his daughter.

 

When he finally pulls into a parking space in the almost empty lot in front of the building, he nearly forgets to remove the key from the ignition in his haste to get in and furiously apologize to Cassie and whoever works there. He manages to lock his car before running to the door and already rambling a string of apologies as he opens it.

 

He’s surprised to see Cassie sitting on a foam mat in the far left corner of the room surrounded by dolls that she’s dressing and…. not a single adult around. When she looks up and sees Scott, she smiles a big, toothy smile and screams, “Daddy!”

 

“Hi princess!” Scott responds, and as Cassie is running over to him and he starts smiling too, he completely forgets everything he had been worrying about ten seconds ago. When she reaches him, he lifts her up in a hug, spinning her around a couple times for good measure and earning a giggle. He comes to the conclusion that she’s probably been so caught up in her own little world of running around and playing with stuff that she doesn’t even realize it’s much later than she normally gets picked up, which eases his conscience. He sets Cassie down and tells her to go get her things before taking a second to scope out the area. Where exactly are all of the employees? Not that he’s blaming anyone for child neglect, okay, because he’s the girl’s own damn father and  _ he  _ was quite late (read: extremely fucking late) to pick her up. Not that he’s blaming himself for being late, because this whole problem is Asshole Boss’ fault.

 

“Hey Cassie?” Scott calls out to his daughter who’s dashing into a room full of cubbies to collect her belongings. “Where are the people who work here?”

 

“Mister Rogers was cleaning the bathroom. He told me I could play with my dolls alone for a couple minutes. Am I in trouble?”

 

Letting out a chuckle at the irony of Cassie’s question (seriously, if anyone should be in trouble, it’s Scott), he tells her, “No, sweetie, I think we’ll work something out.”

 

He then looks around a corner to look for the aforementioned bathroom, and he does find it. Realistically, it should be a weird sign that the door is closed. But Scott is kind of out of his right mind currently, and he figures that normal people clean the bathroom with the door closed. That’s what you do, right?

 

He realizes he’s very,  _ very _ , wrong when he sees a relatively young and wow,  _ very _ attractive man…. Sitting on the toilet. He immediately shuts his eyes, as the guy looks at him with a mixture of mild horror and extreme confusion, and frantically closes the door. Of course, with his eyes closed due to shame and embarrassment, Scott forgets his foot is just barely wedged in between the door and its frame, so he winces in pain when he slams the door onto his toes, and then tries a second time to escape this terribly awkward situation, wishing for Satan or  _ somebody _ to reach up from hell and drag him down to where he belongs.

 

Scott is trying to process what just happened when Cassie runs out of the cubby room wearing her backpack, and the toilet is flushing in the bathroom behind him. Shit, is this going to get Cassie kicked out? He was concerned when he saw Cassie had no adult supervision, sure, but also relieved that no pissy old lady was geared up to scold him and his parenting skills. But now… he can’t help but wonder if this stupid thing he did will ruin his chance of ever seeing his daughter again. Why the fuck didn’t he just knock?!

 

Mister Rogers emerges from the bathroom with a slightly reddened face and eyes swirling with discomfort and guilt, immediately saying, “I’m really sorry about that. The door doesn’t lock for the children’s safety, and I swear I wasn’t in there for more than five minutes and Cassie is the most well-behaved little girl so I figured she would be fine for a couple minutes, but I really shouldn’t have left her alone and I’m sorry.”

 

Scott is dumbfounded by two things. The first one he already sort of noticed, but now Mister Rogers is standing up and he’s a couple inches taller than Scott and he’s wearing a button down with the sleeves rolled up, which shows off his  _ really _ nice arms, and  _ wow _ , those jeans look good on him. The second one is that the guy somehow is managing to feel embarrassed and guilty of something even though Scott is the one who’s hours late to pick up his daughter, and he’s the one who walked in on a hot guy sitting on the toilet. What?

 

Scott realizes he hasn’t said much of anything in the last ten or so seconds, as Cassie is looking up from where she’s holding Scott’s hand and trying to figure out what’s happening and why Mister Rogers and her father are staring at each other. “Oh my god, no- I should be the one apologizing, I’m so incredibly late! My boss is a complete basta- um. Bad... person, and he made me stay late so I was really worried that I would get in trouble and my ex-wife would never let me see Cassie again and then I got here and sure, it was weird that nobody was around but I was just glad that nobody was here to yell at me and kick Cassie out because of her idiot of a father, you know? So then Cassie told me you were cleaning the bathroom and I didn’t know why the door was shut and I know I should have knocked but oh my god I’m really sorry please don’t kick Cassie out,” Scott finishes with a gasp of air and a mortified facial expression.

 

Mister Rogers’ gaze softens a little and responds, “It’s completely okay! Don’t beat yourself up about it, please. It can happen to the best of us. Cassie and I were just fine waiting, right, Cassie?”

 

Cassie smiles up at Mister Rogers and nods vigorously, and he smiles in return.

 

“So,” Mister Rogers continues, “I’m Steve.” (Scott is very glad to put a name to the [beautiful] face.) “And you must be Scott?”

 

“Yep, that’s me,” Scott says sheepishly. And then, an awkward few seconds later, notices Steve’s outstretched hand and stretches out his own to shake it. He blushes profusely. Steve’s smile turns into a slightly smirk-ier type of smile. Only slightly, though. “So um. I have to get her home and feed her, because I know she’s waited long enough for dinner. But thanks for taking care of her.”

 

“Hey, no problem. It’s kind of my job,” Steve says with a chuckle, and  _ fuck _ , he’s so charming it’s unfair. “I hope I’ll be seeing you again?” Scott just about dies at the genuine anticipation written on Steve’s face.

 

“Yea- … Yeah,” Scott lamely counters. Steve smiles impossibly wider. Scott nearly dies a second time. “Well, come on, Cassie, time to go make dinner and fight off bad guys at my house! Say goodbye to Steve- uh. Mister Rogers.”

 

“Bye, Mister Rogers!” Cassie says delightedly.

“Bye, Cassie! Goodbye, Scott.” Steve says the second part more softly. Fuckity  _ fuck _ . 

“Bye, Steve,” Scott says finally, and picks up Cassie to carry her out to his car, even though she’s getting mildly old for it, because Scott will do anything to make her happy.

 

As he puts Cassie in her car seat, she whispers, “You’re not an idiot, Daddy.”

 

And, at that point, Scott’s just completely dead.

**Author's Note:**

> I might make this into a series. Lemme know if you would, like, enjoy that sort of thing.


End file.
